I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. It is a long weekend for many people here in North America, as we celebrate the Labor Day holiday today.

This holiday always symbolized the final days of summer to many. When my children were young, usually school would resume immediately following the long weekend. I have wonderful memories of walking the kids to school on those cool mornings for those first days of class. Usually by the time they were done with their school day, around 3:30 in the afternoon, it was once again warm and sunny.

It is no secret that the following months are my favorite time of year. I love the cooler weather and I don’t even mind the cold. It has been a busy summer and I feel as if I haven’t taken enough time to get out and enjoy the outdoors. But it was overall a productive summer season, so it was with good reason that I sacrificed.

Yesterday I needed to go out and get some propane for the barbeque. Although I had recently filled the tank, it was inadvertantly left on and completely drained. It was Sunday though and most stores around me are not open on Sunday. I needed to go to the little convenient store which is located a bit more on the back roads.

While I was driving, I noticed that the tops of the trees were beginning to turn golden. It was the first realization that autumn was definitely just around the corner. On the return drive home, I looked closer at the trees and the forest and saw that they were definitely beginning to change. I made a promise to myself to make sure to get out and take some walks and enjoy the beauty of the fall season. I promise to take some pictures.

I spent the day yesterday doing house chores, printing the patterns for the skating pond sets and preparing the next online scroll saw class. I feel good about the lessons and I have received some good feedback from many people. I also have received notes from others who intend to participate in it as soon as the weather cools down and they are able to get back to their shop. I think it is a nice thing to be able to have these classes available with no time lines for all to appreciate and benefit from whenever they can. If you want to see the lesson, the link for it is here:

It looks like I will finally be able to get back to working on my bird ornaments today. It seems that everything else has gotten in the way lately. But the house is clean, the class is posted, the skaters are almost done and most businesses are closed today so hopefully I will get a good block of time to get at them.

9 comments so far

Morning Shelia !I notice the leaves yesterday also as I was riding out pick up a lathe a older one but has been taken care. and we started talking about are fall ride with mom and my aunt ( we take each year)
I’ll be sitting the lathe on the stand and clean it up some . Then research how to do as it was high school last time I used one

Hate running out of propane . I pick-up a couple tanks that was on the side of the road and traded them in for the newer one so I have a couple extra tanks . Plus heat my work area in the winter.

Congratulations on your ‘new’ lathe, David! I am sure you will find a lot of enjoyment with it. I know Keith has really enjoyed it very much. Last night he told me he made over 100 pens on it already! He wants to move up to larger things soon, and we are figuring out how we can do that in our little space here. I will let you know.

I hope you take a couple of pictures of your annual outing. I am sure it is quite beautiful in your area. I will be looking forward to seeing them.

I too love fall. We have gotten some much needed rain the last few days, and the temperature is way down. I don’t know the exact degrees. I do know we turned the air conditioner off yesterday and opened some windows. That’s good sign, for comfort, and my electric bill.I even got a jumpstart this year. The older boys happened to be home yeterday and said they were bored. They ought to know better by now than to ever tell me they’re bored. I always have projects that need done.I was hurting like hell with the rain coming down. I supervised though. It took hours, the two older boys, the four younger boys, and lots of coffee, but we have all the fall yard decorations now sitting in the middle of the shop floor waiting for me to start seperating. I will piddle with it here and there between now and Thanksgiving to check all the lights and such and make repairs. We like too decorate the yard so much that we light it up between Thanksgiving and Christmas so bright at night that it looks like noontime on the Fourth of July.First though, I have to get out the Holloween decorations. Yes, I see me having plenty to do in the next few months. Now I just can’t wait till time to start up the wood heater so I can pull out the dutch oven and simmer my home made chili all day on it. Yes, it is getting to be my favorite time of year as well. Good morning Sheila.

Morning back to you William! I also am hurting for some painting time so I can make some more fall decorations – and get some Christmas gifts done! In the fall I start to take Sundays for “my day” and just paint or do things that are for me and my family and friends. If they happen to also be work-related, that is OK, but they don’t HAVE to be – that is what makes them even more special.

I would love to see pictures of your yard at the different seasons. Be sure to post for all of us to see. :)

I didn’t realize anyone here would be interested in seeing the yard decorated. I’ll be sure to post photos Sheila. I’ll put them in the non-shop talk forums section and let you know when I put them up.

It is getting cooler here also (of course;-) and the leaves are changing already. I saw my first flock of geese on Aug. 27 so it looks like we are going to have a long winter. Water levels are stll very high here so I think next spring will be interesting.

It is a beautiful morning here now, and my little boy just woke up and we are cuddling as he wakes up. He gives the best ‘Little Boy’ hugs!

-- "Checking for square? What madness is this! The cabinet is square because I will it to be so!" Jeremy Greiner LJ Topic#20953 2011 Feb 2

I noticed yesterday that there was frost, ice crystals on the lawn when I went out to turn the lawn sprinklerson, and just four days ago it only got down to 60 degrees at night. We are definitely having weird weather.The wet cool spring got the garden off to a slow start, and now the cooler weather means I have to coverup the tomatoes that are just starting to get ripe, by Thursday it should be back up to 90 degrees. We donot have any leaves changing here except for a few that turned brown from the heat. A flock of about 40geese was overhead about 2 weeks ago, the first I had seen since early spring, and now none again. Thecreek is way down, but the river is still going OK. Guess we will have to wait and see what the winter willbring, hopefully lots of powder for my cross country ski course.

if it wasn´t for the calender I wuold have sworn the summer was in april onlyand the rest of the year one big autumn with all that rain we have had here not much have survived in the kitchengarden beside the most persistence vegetables even the potato has started to rotten in mull :-(and now its september where we know the rainy colder days start :-(I´m affraid its going to be the third very long winther ….....expencieve in oil :-(

but if just we see the coloured Autumn then we know most things will be alright :-)

So many people have said that their weather is extreme this year. I found ours to be a bit cooler and wetter than usual, but not too bad. The past couple of weeks have been the warmest it seems and I only like it for a bit and then I am waiting for the cooler weather again. But that is just me :)

I suppose we have to take what we can and hope for the best. Dennis – I hope that you finally dry out and have no more damage. Water damage is really bad. When I lived in the Chicago area we would get rain water in the sewer system every time is stormed. The village insisted that it wasn’t from their equipment, even though it had to be. Later on after we moved, the finally took responsibility for it and are fixing the whole system. Lots of money and damage later for us though. :(